Nikon KeyMission 360 Tests – A Day in the Park

Our Nikon KeyMission 360 arrived recently. It has had some mixed reviews which I believe stem from the nearly useless mobile app which you could use as a remote. The app is infuriating and doesn’t work on many mobile devices (such as an iPhone 7). I was able to get it to work on an iPad air and my old iPhone 5S, but even then it has constant connection issues, requires you to switch between bluetooth and wifi, and drains the battery very quickly. But, once I gave up on the mobile app for control and just used it as a stand alone camera, I was pretty please with the jump in quality over the Ricoh Theta.

In addition to the expected jump in resolution (from “1080 HD” to “4K”… which I put in quotes because that refers the resolution of the entire equirectangular movie and not the viewable content) the start-up time is very quick. There is a significant stitch which is very obvious when there is anything less than 6 ft or 2m from the camera in line with the side of the camera. More attention was paid in working with this camera to align the edge of the camera with things in the distance than with the Theta, and we were also very careful to try and also have that edge point at the sun to avoid mismatched exposures from one lens to the other.

With the Vuze camera delayed until March 2017, this is currently the camera of choice for working forward in terms of a all-in-one device (as opposed to a go-pro omni for instance). However, I’m still looking forward to the Vuze. With its four camera, I think there is potential for some superior stitching to occur.